“I know, I know,” she says when reminded of it, staring off into the distance and shaking her head in disbelief.

Buckle up and we’ll go through it.

* It started just on 12 months ago when she moved to Briar Ridge winery as chief winemaker – her first time in the top job.

*  Not long after that she was called in and appointed general manager as well as chief winemaker – not a bad job title for a 31-year-old.

*  Then she produced the first Semillon of her career – which happened to be named best semillon in the Hunter, beating all the big boys. The same wine has now collected three trophies. We’ll come back to this wine later.

*  Then, a wine she helped blend, the Briar Ridge Dairy Hill 2011 shiraz, was named best current shiraz at the NSW Small Winemakers Show.

*  Next up, Australia’s most authoritative wine magazine, Gourmet Traveller Wine, named her as Australia’s Young Winemaker of the Year, highlighting her innovation.

*  Her role as a judge in wine shows starts to take off – in between her Briar Ridge commitments her forensic palate means she is now invited to judge in three regional shows and three national wine shows a year, something she loves.

*  She somehow finds time to run her first half-marathon – “two hours flat,” she says proudly.

*  And if that’s not enough, the Hunter was on its very best behaviour for her first vintage as a chief winemaker and 2014 is now being widely considered as one of the finest in decades.

So, is that all?

“I bought a dog,” she says. “A standard schnauzer. I ordered him from a breeder in Melbourne and he just turned up one day in a box.”

A with the year she’s had, I suppose that worked out perfectly too.

“He’s gorgeous, we love each other to bits,” she says, breaking into a laugh.

Just then Spencer, freshly clipped with summer on the way, wanders past, just close enough for a head rub. He has the run of the winery, loves the interaction of people visiting the cellar door and all in all seems ridiculously contented.

Like I say, a hell of a year.

Born in Cairns, Olsen moved to Indonesia when she was five and stayed there until she was 12, when she was sent to boarding school in Brisbane, before going to university in New Zealand.

To this day there’s a hybrid accent – probably more New Zealand private school than anything else – clipped, precise.

 It seems formal, at odds with a woman who is happy to break into a laugh at any given moment.

But that’s the two sides of Gwyn Olsen.  The yin and yang.

She takes her winemaking incredibly seriously, as you would expect.  Her wines, her vision for Briar Ridge, are aiming high. Yet it’s all done with a sense of fun.

 Here’s an example. 

We’ve all tried wine and food matching – you know the sort of thing, wagyu beef brisket paired with a Margaret River cabernet, or maybe kingfish sashimi with a Hunter Semillon. 

A couple of weekends back Gwyn put her spin on wine and food pairing.

Her new red, a Hunter River 

burgundy ( a $60 blend of shiraz and pinot noir) was paired with … wait for it … a Dagwood Dog.

Her semillon was paired with fish and chips in a paper cone. Her chardonnay with a cheeseburger, her shiraz with a sausage roll.

In fairness, the food was made by leading chef Robert Molines, but however you dress it up, a Dagwood Dog is a Dagwood Dog.

Why, I ask?

“Because I love Dagwood Dogs,”she says. Actually it’s more like luuurrve. She means it, all right.

“Look, wineries and restaurants do this wine and food matching, but it’s not real to most people,”she explains.

“How many people go home and have a Wagyu beef brisket?  I know I don’t.

“When I have wine at home it’s either with something easy, or with takeaway. 

“I just wanted people to have a fun day, with a different take on food and wine matching.”

The feedback from the public was extremely positive. So much so the day has already been pencilled in again next year.

This innovation, this creative spark has spread to the winemaking sider of things too, with four new wines.

Aside from the Hunter River Burgundy, she has big plans for the Briar Vineyard Blend (which is fondly known as the dyslexic blend around the winery). 

“It’s  a blend of semillon, sauvignon blanc, chardonnay, verdelho and vermentino,” she says. 

‘When I got my award at the Gourmet Traveller Wine dinner, this was the wine they requested to be served at the table”.

“It’s from our dyslexic vineyard. Apparently the person who planted it was dyslexic, so we have a couple of rows of semillon, then maybe a row of sauvignon blanc, a row or two of verdelho, then a another row of semillon and so on.

“It’s tasty though.

“I’m also doing  a rose, a serious rose, dry, refreshing, crisp. And a sweet wine, a late harvest gewurtztraminer.”

The flagship semillon and shiraz will remain as they are – and why not, they’re very classy wines – although she plans to have some fun with the chardonnay.

Which brings me back to that award winning Dairy Hill single vineyard semillon.

 Here’s the thing: nowhere on the planet does semillon better than the Hunter, full stop. And when it comes to Hunter awards, it’s the big one – semillon and shiraz rule.

So to put out the best in the Hunter, means at her first go she has put out a world class wine. 

The fact that it has come from one of the Hunter’s great vintages means this wine can sit up alongside the finest whites the Hunter has ever produced. 

“I thought I’d had a good crack at it, but you’re always a bit nervous …”

Yep, one hell of a year. Talk about setting the bar high.